Letters to the Editor – 29/07 – Church loans, China economy, Best of Twitter July 28, 2013 Church loans [Re: Church of England launches probe into link with Wonga, Friday] The Church should be applauded for the proposed venture into the payday lending market. Its decision is laudable not because there is anything evil about Wonga, nor because of the supposed moral desirability of constraining reckless capitalism. The archbishop’s intention to outcompete [...]
This isn’t the recovery we expected but we shouldn’t write it off entirely July 25, 2013 GIVEN that we are celebrating a royal birth, it seems appropriate to say “Happy birthday!” to the UK’s economic recovery, which is four years old this quarter. To celebrate, the Office for National Statistics has presented us with one of the better GDP figures we have had in recent times. The output of the UK [...]
The Long View: We greet our new prince and future King as symbol of our hard-fought liberty July 25, 2013 THE FUTURE’S Georgian. But some people seem to have confused the nation’s celebrations at the birth of His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge with slavish adulation at the feet of royal power. Such claims make for good Twitter polemics, but little historical sense. The British are, after all, blessed with both an ancient monarchy [...]
Battle of the online giants: Why Facebook continues to surprise its many critics July 25, 2013 BEFORE Facebook surprised the market with a 53 per cent rise in second quarter revenues to $1.8bn (£1.2bn), the social network had had a wretched few months. It was forced to admit it hands data to the US National Security Agency – stirring up privacy concerns. In May, Nissan and Nationwide pulled ads after they [...]
Letters to the editor – 26/07 – Business rates, Best of Twitter July 25, 2013 Business rates [Re: New postcode lending data reveals Britain’s strikingly healthy SME sector, yesterday] SMEs may be performing better than we thought, but there is one area in which London’s smaller businesses are being unnecessarily battered. The current business rates system is cumbersome, complex and frankly bust. Worse than that, it’s driving small firms out [...]
China’s false stability could soon be exposed as its growth model creaks July 24, 2013 CHINA is widely considered to be the twenty-first century’s emerging economic leader. Global financial interests are betting that its state-directed economic model will overtake the liberal capitalism of the debt-ridden West. But is this the case? Leaders in Beijing have a slightly different view of their economy. China is devouring land, labour and capital in [...]
New postcode lending data reveals Britain’s strikingly healthy SME sector July 24, 2013 HOW are businesses in your area doing? Are they building up cash piles, or piling up the debts? Until this week, regional borrowing and saving by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was a mystery. But thanks to data released from banks for 120 postcode areas, we now know what is happening in each part of [...]
Phoney war between the generations masks worrying lack of reform July 24, 2013 THE battle of the generations is raging. Did the Baby Boomers have an easier life? Or are the cosseted members of Generation Y – the demographic cohort born from the early 1980s onwards – just engaging in self-pity? The truth is not “somewhere in between”, and this debate is actively damaging. Differences between the generations [...]
Letters to the editor – 25/07 – Train squeeze, Best of Twitter July 24, 2013 Train squeeze [Re: Commuter crush: Seven out of 10 most overcrowded trains in Britain go to London, yesterday] Unfortunately there is no silver bullet that will solve this situation. Lengthening trains, platforms, and building new infrastructure can help, but will only go so far. The government should start incentivising home working. They could introduce measures like three-day-a-week [...]
How an ageing Britain can grow old and avoid a looming longevity crisis July 23, 2013 BRITAIN’s future is getting greyer. In its most recent fiscal sustainability report, the Office of Budget Responsibility recognised that we are living longer and need more care. But we haven’t saved enough. The state won’t be able to keep us, and the dependency ratio will only worsen as fewer workers struggle to fund more pensioners. [...]